Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Switzerland and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Depeche Mode to the punk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Schoolly D. All the underground hits.
All Von Mondo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every JFA record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Blake Baxter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Zapp,
Fluxion,
Sixth Finger,
Outsiders,
Jacob Miller,
Susan Cadogan,
The Fuzztones,
48th St. Collective,
Kerri Chandler,
Man Parrish,
Gang Starr,
Andrew Hill,
Brick,
Hardrive,
cv313,
Freddie Wadling,
Piero Umiliani,
the Bar-Kays,
Pantytec,
One Last Wish,
Lungfish,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Standells,
Minny Pops,
The Mojo Men,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Black Moon,
The Toasters,
X-102,
Underground Resistance,
F. McDonald,
Blake Baxter,
R.M.O.,
the Slits,
Scrapy,
Spandau Ballet,
Average White Band,
Soft Machine,
Flamin' Groovies,
Suicide,
Barbara Tucker,
Isaac Hayes,
the Normal,
Erykah Badu,
Marc Almond,
David Axelrod,
Lou Christie,
Hashim,
Agent Orange,
Barclay James Harvest,
Dorothy Ashby,
Alice Coltrane,
John Cale,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Lebanon Hanover,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Ohio Players,
Unrelated Segments,
The Fall,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Harpers Bizarre,
Easy Going, Easy Going, Easy Going, Easy Going.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.